This is the first of his books that I ever read and it is very good – prompted me to buy lots more a few years ago. Beautifully written (or translated), the prose just skips off the page so they are very readable.
The plot is (and sounds) quite gruesome, but it is really just the story of your everyday psychopath, driven by an obsessive love for his mother, who strangles every woman who hints at rejecting him.
Van Veeteren, the Holmes like detective, has retired and is running a second-hand bookshop in Maardam, where the books are set. He is drawn into the investigation and insists on solving it, which of course he does.
His many colleagues in the Mardaam police force, who appear in the (earlier, I assume) books, are dull and characterless in comparison, but Van Veeteren is always a joy to read about.
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